'We took a step forward.' Xavier hangs tough but falls to No. 6 Houston at home, 66-60

Sustaining stretches of good basketball has been the biggest challenge for Sean Miller’s inexperienced group of young Musketeers this season. Against lesser competition, Xavier was able to pull out victories despite up-and-down play.

When facing some of the best squads in the country, though, the ingredients for an upset call for a high level of play for an overwhelming portion of the 40-minute game clock.

On Friday, in its second top 10 matchup this season (at Purdue), Xavier played well in stretches, rallying from a pair of double-digit deficits, but ultimately fell to No. 6 Houston, 66-60, at Cintas Center.

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Xavier trailed by as many as 13 points in the second half (46-33) after the Cougars opened the final stanza with a 10-0 run. The Musketeers’ defense would recover, holding Houston without a field goal for nearly nine minutes.

Xavier’s offense struggled shooting against the nation’s top-scoring defense (49 points per game) but made up for an 18-of-55 night from the field by going to the free-throw line early and often. In the second half, Xavier shot just 27.3%, but knocked down 16 from the charity stripe.

The two teams combined to attempt 44 free throws off 33 fouls over the final 20 minutes. Xavier's transition offense produced 17 points against a Houston team that had not allowed more than four fast break points in a game this season.

Sophomore Desmond Claude knocked down a pair to give Xavier a 52-51 lead with 6:56 remaining. Houston would hold Xavier scoreless for the next five minutes and without a field goal for over eight minutes until a Quincy Olivari 3-pointer with 35.4 seconds left.

"I feel like we took a step forward," Claude said. "We're getting closer and closer. We still have a new team, we're still figuring things out, but we're getting closer each game."

Baylor transfer L.J. Cryer led Houston with a game-high 23 points and guard Jamal Shead added 13. Xavier was led by Olivari, who recorded his fifth-straight double-digit performance with 17 points. Claude poured in 14 and Abou Ousmane finished with eight.

'We did some great things in tonight's game.'

Against a physical Houston team that is used to bullying teams, Xavier outrebounded the Cougars, 42-39, and grabbed 15 offensive rebounds (Houston had 14). Both teams tallied 22 points in the paint. It was another performance, albeit a loss, for Xavier to build on.

"We did some great things in tonight's game," Miller said. "I don't know if anybody can really understand how hard it is to outrebound them . . . I think any coach that plays Houston, if you can rebound them, that's like step one.

"I have no problem with our team's effort. I thought we sustained the effort, played to win and played with great energy."

Xavier fights out of early double-digit hole

After the loss to Oakland on Monday, Miller said he wished his team had been able to trap the post, but it wasn't implemented in the defense yet. Xavier opened Friday with a low-post trap, but it quickly backfired as Houston came out on fire from the perimeter.

Cryer, the team's leading scorer this season, knocked down his first three 3-pointers and Emmanuel Sharp added another from deep to give Houston a 12-2 lead just over three minutes into the game.

"They outscored combined the first four minutes of the game, the first four minutes of the second half, 22-6, and I don't know if that's necessarily our problem. Houston does that to a lot of teams. It's part of their identity," Miller said. "We talked about that before the game and at halftime, but it's those two segments that overwhelmed our ability to win."

Xavier's defense recovered, holding Houston without a field goal for five-plus minutes later in the half while its offense also got going from beyond the arc. The spark was Olivari, whose trio of triples paired with Claude's attacking of the rim, and gave Xavier its first lead of the game at 25-24.

"Xavier was the aggressor in the first half. They popped us in the mouth," Houston head coach Kelvin Sampson said.

Houston, which averages 15.1 offensive rebounds per game, would punish the Musketeers on the offensive glass with 11 second-chance points. Xavier committed 11 first-half turnovers and Houston took a 36-31 advantage into the intermission.

Trey Green (illness) sits out

Xavier’s depth took a hit on Friday as freshman guard Trey Green, who is averaging 7.3 points over 19.3 minutes per game off the bench, missed the game with an illness after sitting out of Thursday’s practice.

Green was coming off his best shooting performance of the season, knocking down 3-of-6 3-pointers against Oakland while providing a spark defensively with a pair of steals. In his absence, freshman Dailyn Swain received a bigger role and was crucial to the Musketeers' comeback effort with a 6-for-6 performance at the free-throw line.

What's next?

Xavier (4-4) has three games left in its six-game homestand, starting against Delaware on Tuesday night before the annual Skyline Chili Crosstown Shootout against the University of Cincinnati on Saturday, Dec. 9.

The Musketeers won't hit the road again until they open Big East play at St. John's Dec. 20.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Xavier vs. Houston: Musketeers come up short against No. 6 Cougars